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Come As You Are: I don’t Have a Gun

Come As You Are is one of the best sellers and most representative songs of Nirvana, the grunge band par excellence led by Kurt Cobain.

The single, released in 1991 and extracted from the album Nevermind. It was only surpassed by Smell Like Spirit and was included in the 500 immortal songs, according to the renowned Rolling Stone magazine.

Cobain defined the song as “old style love song, whose harmony came down in three parts”.

As in Kurt’s style, Come As You Are is a song that must be interpreted on a personal level, as literal meanings are often contradictory and purposefully enigmatic.

Let’s see some curiosities about the song

The first thing that comes to the eye is the repeated phrase:I don’t have a gun. A few years later, three to be precise, the artist would have killed himself by shooting with a shotgun on his head. Although many fans do not believe suicide, Kurt has been depressed for many years. It is curious to mention that as it was written and for some time, the song was called Memoria because it’s a word often appearing in the text.

Second curiosity: Come As You Are is surprisingly similar to Killing Joe‘s Eighties song. Especially the initial riff sounding identical, simply slowed down. So much so that the latter had thought of bringing Nirvana to a court for plagiarism. He desisted after Cobain’s death, out of respect for the artist.

Drug addiction?

The song’s verse about a something “soaked in bleach”, was picked up by a Seattle campaign, where Kurt was originally from. This encouraging heroin addicts to “sterilize” the needles by soaking them in bleach. We remember that Cobain was also dependent on the substance. Many people attribute to his drug addiction the real cause of his death.

The way he was

Cobain was very much tied to this song. According to him it spoke about people and how people expected him to act. That was his interpretation. ‘As a friend, as an old enemy’ and’ take your time, hurry up’. Certainly paradoxical words. A bit like Kurt was. Friend and great enemy of himself.